The air team that intercepts hurricanes in the summer is back in Northern California tracking West Coast storms through March.
Their goal is to gather more data for more accurate forecasts.
Their role is more valuable now as climate change could make future atmospheric river storms even stronger.
NBC Bay Area’s Rob Mayeda was invited along for a mission to take a closer look. Check out what he discovered in the video above.
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The Hurricane Hunters WC-130Js at Mather Airport east of Sacramento.
Two aircraft from the 53 WRS (Weather Reconnaissance Squadron) are in California on data gathering flights studying atmospheric river storms.
NBC Bay Area’s Rob Mayeda joined the crew for a nearly 10-hour flight covering more than 3,000 nautical miles on Feb. 22, 2022.
Inside the cockpit of the Hurricane Hunters WC-130J.
Aerial Recon Weather Officer Lt. Col. Tobi Baker watches data coming in along the flight path.
Loadmaster Staff Sgt. John Klingenberger logging dropsondes being used for data gathering.
Box full of dropsondes which act like miniature airborne weather stations.
Dropsonde in the tube being prepared for release.
Each drop is done creating a grid of data points.
The bowtie-shaped flight path took the Hurricane Hunters crew about 700 miles north of Hawaii at the most western point of the trip before heading north back to California.
Better data leads to more accurate weather prediction, boosting accuracy by 20%-50%, as seen recently in atmospheric river storms impacting the Pacific Northwest.
View from the flight deck on the WC-130J.
Data gathered by the 53rd WRS team has proven valuable in improving forecasts and perhaps more so in the future as climate change is expected to boost moisture for future atmospheric river storms.
